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Track Bike

Frederick Seidel

The bicycle messenger who nearly knocked you overWas me trying to.That was me circling Columbus CircleOn a track bike, the kind with one gear and no brakes.Look out! No brakes with a message!I flashed around the velodromeOf my life, clinging to your steeply banked curves,And discovered the New World.

It’s as if your body were itself a personAnd the person wasn’t you.It’s as if I were a flesh-eating flower,Whereas actually I’m originally from St Louis.The performing self opens the stage door.I start my act.I feel like running for office.I feel like riding a fixed-wheel track bike for the simplicity.

You’ll play the violaAnd I’ll play myself.Komm, süsser TodComes out of my mouthLike a tail coming out of a dog.Take my hand and we’ll wag down Fifth Avenue.We’ll walk into the first church we see,Which is to say the Apple Store.

I’m walking west on Central Park SouthWith my iPhone out.I am calling you, oo oo oo, oo oo oo,With a love that’s true, oo oo oo, oo oo oo.We take the Time Warner BuildingEscalators up the four floors to the top.Something about how incredible it all isTells me to stand back from the edge of the vertiginous view.

I get dizzy imagining I’m on the balconyThat runs around the torch of the Statue of LibertyLooking down on Columbus Circle.The handlebars are in my hands.I ride without brakes around and around.I walk around the torch blazing.I see you thirty blocks uptownIn my bed, light pouring in.

And we have tickets for the Bach at Lincoln Center.And let’s check outThe Upper West Side Apple Store next door.It’s one more crystal-clear Apple cathedralFor Saint Steve Jobs, who discovered America,Where the deer and the antelope playWith the herds of touchscreens on display,Not far from Columbus Circle and pancreatic cancer.